Aug 13 (Reuters) - Yemen faces its most serious threat of a return to large-scale war since a U.N.-brokered truce in 2022, U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg warned on Thursday, as the world body said more than half the country's population was experiencing acute food insecurity.

The warning follows an escalation in hostilities between Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group and its internationally-recognised, Saudi-backed government that has raised fears of a broader return to war and a fuelling of wider regional tensions.

By Phil Stewart

PANAMA CITY, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has enough assets to maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, adding ships could be rotated in and out of the region as needed.

Hegseth's comments suggest he is advising U.S. President Donald Trump that the U.S. military can keep applying economic pressure on Iran for as long as needed to help so-far failed negotiations to end the conflict, begun in February.

(Refiles to say two airstrikes in paragraph 1)

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinians, including a senior police official, in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in the first reported fatalities in more than a week as the Israeli military scaled back its targeted attacks in the enclave under U.S. pressure.

Palestinian medics said the first strike targeted two people riding on a motorbike, in a western area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. One person was killed and the other was wounded, they added.

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - From the beginning, something didn't add up.

During the closing hours of the NATO Leaders' Summit in Ankara in July, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would not be flying home aboard the new presidential plane that had brought him to the Turkish capital after Qatar gifted it to the administration last year.

More than 100 people had to abandon ship after a fire engulfed a children's entertainment tour boat off southwestern Turkey on Thursday, officials said. 

Families were on board for the outing near the coastal resort of Fethiye, which is particularly popular with British tourists. 

Officials said all 115 passengers and crew were "evacuated to shore" from the "Toys Boat" -- which says it offers children an "unforgettable adventure" -- mainly by coastguards.

By Emily Giles, Elwely Elwelly and Melory Ghazi

DUBAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Iran's state media has mocked U.S. President Donald Trump after new details emerged about his secret aircraft switch during a visit to Turkey, saying it showed just how nervous he is about the Islamic Republic's power.

By Yi-Chin Lee and Angie Teo

TAIPEI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Air raid sirens rang out and streets emptied in Taiwan's capital Taipei on Thursday during annual air raid drills that also included the government deliberately limiting mobile internet access to simulate what might happen in the event of a Chinese attack.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, is approaching the end of its 10-day-long annual Han Kuang war games, where the military has practised fighting a Chinese invasion and the government has also staged civil defence drills.

By Maayan Lubell and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Israel won't withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, the defence minister said on Thursday, qualifying remarks he made a day earlier that had suggested Israeli forces would occupy the territory indefinitely and drew U.S. criticism.

BEIRUT, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A Lebanese official denied on Thursday a Reuters report that Beirut had agreed with Israel to a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and said it was following up on the issue with Washington.

A June 26 deal brokered by the U.S. linked the progressive withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon to the "verified disarmament" of all non-state armed groups by the Lebanese government. Hezbollah, which is not a party to the agreement, has rejected disarming.

Economic pressures and changing social norms are driving couples in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria to have fewer babies, with a recent study saying Maghreb fertility was at a historic low.